Michael Boyle (Anthropology) received a 2008-2009 Wenner-Gren Foundation fellowship ($17,869) to support his dissertation research on "Declining City, Born-Again Citadel: The Evangelical Reconstitution of Urban Life in Postindustrial America." His research examines the ways in which evangelical social service ministries are reconstituting class relations in postindustrial Canton, Ohio, a city recently designated by Forbes magazine as one of the "fastest dying" in America. (posted 1-09)

Christine Folch(Anthropology) published “Fine Dining: Race in Prerevolution Cuban Cookbooks” in Latin American Research Review, Volume 43, Number 2, 2008. Her article explores pre-1959 Cuban cookbooks, analyzing recipes and other materials to support her argument that such cookbooks assert and contest racial and national identity, revealing social tensions leading to the 1959 revolution. (posted 1-09)

Ceren Ozgul (Anthropology) is a recipient of a 2008-09 Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE) Pre-Dissertation Award in Anthropology from the Fellowship Committee of the Council for European Studies at Columbia University. The award will aid in research on religious conversion to a minority religion in secular states as part of her dissertation fieldwork entitled “From Muslim Citizen to Christian Minority: Legal Implications of ‘Double-Conversion’ in Turkey.” Ceren also received a 2009-10 Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation in the amount of $15,000 to support her dissertation research entitled "From Citizen to Minority: Legal Reform and ’Double-Conversion’ in Turkey." It is jointly funded by the Cultural Anthropology and Law and Social Sciences divisions. In addition, Ceren won a 2009 Dissertation Fieldwork grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research for her dissertation research in Turkey. (posted 11-09)

Kareem Rabie (Anthropology) has won a highly competitive Dissertation Fieldwork Grant of $14,000 from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She will be conducting research on “An Occupied Economy: Development, the Private Sector, Statelessness, and State Formation in the West Bank” in Israel/Palestine. Four other doctoral candidates in anthropology have won Wenner-Gren grants this year. See also Daisy Deomampo, R. Sophie Statzel, Kaja Tretjak, and Analia Villagra. For a single academic department to have such a high success rate in one grant cycle is an unusual achievement. (posted 11-09)

Nandini Sikand (Anthropology) has co-directed a 27-minute documentary, Soma Girls, which examines a hostel for girls who are daughters of Calcutta sex workers. The film, which is funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and the Center for Asian American Media, had its world premiere on November 13 at New York’s Quad Cinema as part of the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival. (posted 11-09)

R. Sophie Statzel (Anthropology) has won a highly competitive Dissertation Fieldwork Grant of $14,975) from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She will be conducting research in Colorado, USA, on “Paths to Godliness: The Political Ethics of Intimacy in Contemporary American Evangelicalism.” Four other doctoral candidates in anthropology have won Wenner-Gren grants this year. See Daisy Deomampo, Kareem Rabie, Kaja Tretjak, and Analia Villagra. For a single academic department to have such a high success rate in one grant cycle is an unusual achievement. (posted 11-09)

Nomi Stone (Anthropology) was interviewed on National Public Radio about her first book of poetry, Stranger’s Notebook (Northwestern University Press, 2008). The poems were inspired by her experience living on the Tunisian island of Djerba, one of the last cohesive Jewish communities in North Africa. (posted 3-09)

Kaja Tretjak (Anthropology) has won a highly competitive Dissertation Fieldwork Grant of $20,000 from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She will be conducting research in New York, District of Columbia, New Jersey, and Texas on “U.S. Conservatism in Decline?: Power, Governance, and Knowledge Production in the Contemporary University.” Four other doctoral candidates in anthropology have won Wenner-Gren grants this year. See Daisy Deomampo, Kareem Rabie, R. Sophie Statzel, and Analia Villagra. For a single academic department to have such a high success rate in one grant cycle is an unusual achievement. (posted 11-09)

Analia Villagra (Anthropology) has won a highly competitive Dissertation Fieldwork Grant of $15,000 from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She will be conducting research in Brazil on “Cadê o Mico? (Where is the Tamarin?): Locating Monkeys in the Politics of Land and Conservation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.” Four other doctoral candidates in anthropology have won Wenner-Gren grants this year. See Daisy Deomampo, Kareem Rabie, R. Sophie Statzel, and Kaja Tretjak For a single academic department to have such a high success rate in one grant cycle is an unusual achievement. (posted 11-09)